2023-10-27 13:31:19
Agency
27/10/2023
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When astronauts return to the Moon, they will take more photos of the lunar surface than any human has before. To develop the camera best suited to this task, European astronauts and scientists are lending a hand to NASA’s Artemis imaging team.
Engineers who developed the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera (HULC) worked with ESA in the lunar landscapes of Lanzarote, Spain, to test the new camera as part of the program training PANGAEA.
PANGAEA prepares astronauts to become effective field scientists for future missions to the Moon. The program was an opportunity for an international team to test the camera’s capabilities in realistic geological exploration scenarios.
Astronauts use the Artemis lunar mission camera
During geological outings, astronauts document their exploration work using the ESA Electronic Field Notebook – a tool that allows PANGAEA geology instructors to follow and accompany the crew from the station of the scientific team. This year, the science team received real-time audio and video recordings.
“The addition of the lunar camera allowed the crew to get a realistic taste of exploring the lunar surface. This greatly enriched their experience, and we would be happy to repeat the experiment on other occasions,” says Loredana Bessone, PANGAEA project manager.
A new camera for the Moon
The new lunar camera is built from commercially available professional cameras with high light sensitivity and state-of-the-art lenses. To prepare it for space, the NASA team made several modifications, including adding a dust cover and thermal protection – temperatures on the Moon range from -200 to 120 °C – as well as than a new set of ergonomic buttons suitable for astronauts wearing gloves in bulky spacesuits.
Lunar exploration, teamwork
One of the most prolific European photographers in orbit, astronaut Thomas Pesquet of ESA, praised the design of the device after using it during PANGAEA. “The engineers did a great job reconfiguring the buttons and arranging them to provide simple but reliable protection for the camera,” he says.
Capturing images will be essential for documenting scientific discoveries during future lunar missions. One of the goals of the PANGAEA program was to select the best suited lenses for shooting.
Besides Thomas Pesquet, the astronaut candidate Jessica Wittnerfrom NASA, et Takuya Onishifrom the Japanese space agency, used the camera in broad daylight, but also in the darkness of volcanic caves to simulate extreme conditions for lunar photography.
Camera Design Debrief
“The lunar camera will be one of many tools they will need on the Moon; so it must be easy to use. The human factor is very important to us, because you want the camera to be intuitive and not impose constraints on the crew,” explains Jeremy Myers, HULC camera manager at NASA.
Working with some of Europe’s top planetary scientists, Jeremy examined the quality of the images. “The geologists’ perspective was very helpful to us in ensuring that the photos had the correct resolution, depth of field and exposure to maximize their scientific value,” he adds.
A quantum leap from the Apollo mission era
Famous images of the Moon were taken by the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission using a very different camera: a stand-alone mechanical Hasselblad with a 60mm Harrison Schmidt lens. During the entire mission, the astronauts collected 1,407 photographs with four of these cameras.
A camera in the dark
The Artemis Moon camera will be the first mirrorless device intended for portable use in space. Mirrorless cameras provide excellent image quality in low-light situations, making them well suited to the harsh, high-contrast environment of the Moon.
The camera will also record videos. Videos can bring field knowledge to ground teams on Earth and help document the exploration of our nearest cosmic neighbor.
Light, camera, action!
During his two missions to the International Space Station, Thomas took more than 380,000 photos in the space. “I spent a lot of time learning what you can do with the cameras available in orbit. It’s not just about point and shoot. On the Moon, it will not be enough to press the buttons in automatic mode,” he explains.
Using the camera in the dark
The Artemis III mission will land at the Moon’s south pole, near permanently shadowed craters, where the crew will search for signs of icy water. “The photography conditions will be tricky in many ways, from using the camera with gloves, to very low light levels, to the high contrast between bright and dark objects,” adds Thomas.
Future Moon explorers will take various photos of the lunar surface, which may be close-ups or, conversely, panoramic images and videos. Jeremy spent a week with the PANGAEA crew to more closely monitor the camera’s performance in the hands of the astronauts.
“We try to choose the best lenses for Moon photos and optimize the settings intelligently. We want astronauts to be able to take a detailed image of a crystal structure in a rock and capture landscapes, all with the right exposure,” explains Jeremy.
Testing continues
Although the core of the camera remains the same, the interface and body continue to evolve. In the near future, a model will fly to the International Space Station for further testing.
NASA teams have carried out extensive tests on the three major challenges of space: the effects of temperature, vacuum and radiation. On the Moon, the abrasive nature of lunar dust will pose an additional problem. Last year, the camera was included as part of a simulated moonwalk with the mission JETT 3 in Arizona, United States.
Rosemary Coogan tries out the Artemis lunar mission camera
Some European career astronauts recently had the opportunity to handle the camera at an imaging meeting in the Netherlands. ESA astronauts Matthias Maurer and Alexander Gerst tested its functionality at the European Astronaut Center (EAC) in Germany.
“We will continue to modify the camera in preparation for the Artemis III moon landing,” explains Jeremy. “I am confident that we will get the best product: a camera that will capture images of the Moon for humanity, will be used by crews from many countries and will serve for many years to come,” he concludes.
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